Watergate reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward told today of their “high hopes” and “optimism” for the future of the ailing Washington Post, after its shock sale to billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

But Bernstein said he felt “personal sadness” about the sale of the institution where he and his colleague made their names and broke the story that helped bring down Richard Nixon.

He added that the deal could usher in a new age “combining the best of enduring journalistic values with all the potential of the digital era”.

All The President's Men: Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward, right, and Carl Bernstein
The sale of one of America’s best known newspapers for only $250 million (£162.7 million) was announced to staff by Donald E Graham, chairman and chief executive of the Washington Post Company, yesterday.

The paper lost more than $50 million last year, with subscriptions and advertising revenue down. It was bought by Mr Bezos in a personal capacity, rather than by his Amazon online retail empire. Commentators said it could become a “laboratory” for combining high-quality news content with retailing to make it commercially viable.

US media expert Henry Blodget said Mr Bezos may offer Amazon Prime subscribers or Kindle buyers free online access to the Post. He added: “News is the digital equivalent of a high-traffic intersection. As people pass through to consumer information they might also stop to do some shopping. Companies have dabbled with combining the two but no one has really nailed it.”

The sale brings to an end a widely admired proprietorship, with four generations of the Graham family owning the Post since 1933. Young reporters Woodward and Bernstein pursued a story about a break-in at Democratic Party HQ in Washington’s Watergate building in 1972, and exposed the involvement of President Nixon’s administration. Nixon was forced to resign. The reporters chronicled the story in their book All The President’s Men, turned into a movie in 1976.

In an email to blogger Dylan Byers of Politico.com, Bernstein said: “On a very personal level, there is a lot of sentiment — appropriate sadness, for sure. I have high hopes today’s announcement will represent a great moment in the history of a great institution: recognition that a new kind of entrepreneurship and leadership, fashioned in the age of new technology, is needed.”

Woodward wrote: “This is a very good outcome... Bezos has the money, patience and potential vision to make this work... So I am optimistic.”